How did you land your first users/customers of your product?
Most people go to Product Hunt to maybe get their first customers and maybe sell their product.
But some started earlier and got their first customers in a different way.
Can you share how you landed the first user and what the product was?
If you have a marketing technique that helped, feel free to share it as well.
Speaking for myself, my first online product was an exercise program, and a friend of mine from a yoga class bought it, just because I shared it on my Facebook wall.
But it didn’t work out because she was one of the few – she was just being supportive, and that’s the first lesson: Friends are not your customers. They can be moral support, but they won’t buy from you forever.
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I acquired my first users through Google Ads for just $12. Right after I paid for the ads, over 100 people installed the app within 24 hours. This made me realize there was real interest in the concept, so I kept pushing forward. In total, I ran Google Ads three times, spending $66 overall, which brought in more than 800 installs.
At first, I noticed a lot of 'empty' installs. After analyzing the Google Ads data, I excluded countries that were driving installs without any in-app registrations. Once I optimized the ads for countries with actual sign-ups, I could see users exploring the app. However, retention was low because the app still lacked the core features to make them stay. Unfortunately, I ran out of budget—I didn't even have $12 left for ads—so I had to start looking for organic marketing channels.
For organic growth, I optimized my ASO and turned to Reddit. In April, about 50 to 60 users from the US and Europe joined without me spending a single cent. Then, I decided to launch on Product Hunt on May 14th, which brought in 8 installs (from Canada, the US, Mexico, Russia, and Azerbaijan) and 4 registrations.
Before all of this, I tried marketing on TikTok and LinkedIn, but I was targeting the Russian-speaking audience. However, as my recent experiments have shown, my true audience is in the West.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@eduard477 that is pretty cool! What is the product and what other tools did you use for marketing?
@busmark_w_nika Thank you. The product is called 'Bendida TimeBox.' I created it during a very dark, uncertain, and chaotic period in my life. I needed a way to keep pushing toward my goals without giving up. I searched for solutions in many productivity apps, but they all felt like they were designed for people who already have everything under control—people who can afford to plan out every hour and minute of their day.
But in my life, just like in the lives of many others, things happen that make it incredibly hard to maintain that kind of hyper-structured productivity. I needed a tool that would allow me to see my Past—to track my progress and see what actions I’ve already taken; to see my Future—to know exactly where I am heading; and to manage my Present—so I can understand what I need to focus on right now, in the current moment of my life.
In short, it’s an app designed to be a companion during tough times, keeping you from giving up.
For marketing, I’ve also been using YouTube and publishing expert articles in Russian tech magazines to build my personal brand. However, for some reason, promoting this concept among my fellow countryman has been a real struggle. I’m from Kazakhstan. I’ve pitched to local investors and tried explaining the concept to people via TikTok and Instagram, but I honestly find it much easier to push this idea in the West (US, Europe, Canada). It’s a bit more challenging but still doable in Russia, but in my own country, Kazakhstan, I feel like I've hit a dead end.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@eduard477 Do you think that in the US/Europe/Canada you can receive more money rather than in Russia or Kazachstan?
@busmark_w_nika Yes, I'm absolutely sure. Because we have a mentality where people look for a free way, even if it's of lower quality. My previous app brought in my first income from Canada and Israel.
ProblemHunt
Hi, Nika 👋
Thank you for sharing your real case and experience. 😊
Yesterday I published the problem that at least 28 people are experiencing. I found them manually across different social networks and group chats. Through cold messages I was able to get in touch with them and figure out whether they actually experience this problem or not. It turned out that they experience it quite strongly. During the conversations I was also able to extract many interesting details and insights, but the most important thing is that most of them agreed to try a future solution. And now they are waiting for a signal when I write to them again with a link to the finished product.
I found this way of finding first users/customers quite interesting. And it even made me want to find more people experiencing different problems in the same way and sell them in small packages to startups that are looking for their first users — roughly packages of 20–50 users.
In the near future I want to try selling the first such package. Let’s see what comes out of it :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@gostroverhov do you build that product on your own? Actually, Problem Hunt is an interesting concept that brings you ideas you can earn money on :D
ProblemHunt
@busmark_w_nika Thank you, Nika 😊
Yes, I’m building it together with my wife — we’re co-founders.
It seems that ProblemHunt can become not only a place for discovering startup ideas, but also a way to connect founders with their first real users. That part became especially interesting to me after all these conversations. Thank you for bringing up this topic :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@gostroverhov Is she there for marketing as a co-founder?
ProblemHunt
@busmark_w_nika Nika, no, marketing is mostly my responsibility, and she mainly focuses on deep interviews with respondents :)
Mailwarm
It was actually talking to people IRL that got my first signup and paying customer. I am finding marketing is hard and I feel completely lost and managing to get myself banned everywhere trying to genuinely tell the world I have a great thing!
Learning though and hopefully getting better :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@robert_craig2 But this is not very usual approach, I mean, not many people are brave enough to talk IRL. E.g. I would be very shy to talk like that :D
ZapDigits
I got from my first ProductHunt launch.
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@malithmcrdev That's pretty cool! How many were from PH actually? :)
ZapDigits
@busmark_w_nika around 200 free users and 5 paid. This was our first launch. It was a very basic MVP.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@malithmcrdev that is solid!
I started training companies on using Spec Kitty before we even launched the full product (that's the benefit of an open source software business model). Now those companies that are using Spec Kitty are my first customers.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@robert_douglass how did you get those / approached them? :)
@busmark_w_nika 1. building in public (Github/LinkedIn), 2. demoing at meetups 3. inbound via our website
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@robert_douglass I need to implement 2 or 3! :D :)
The friend/supporter lesson is underrated. I’ve seen the cleanest first-user path come from people who already have a repeated painful workflow, not people who simply like the founder.
The useful distinction for me is: did they change behavior before the product existed? If they were already using a spreadsheet, a messy prompt doc, a VA, a hacked-together Zapier flow, etc., the first product conversation is much easier because you are replacing an active workaround rather than trying to create urgency from scratch.
My first product (OCR web app) started getting users and customers from a REDDIT comment I made. It still feeds 4-8 users a day. So reddit commenting really works well.
Google Search has brought the traffic with best sessions though. SEO takes time but pulls the high intent users. So targeting keywords and optimizing your website is worth it.
Making YouTube Videos targeting relevant keywords has worked too. Many come through that channel.
My first user was a friend of a friend (and now we're friends as well). It's always good to start within your network.